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High-Dosage Tutoring at Scale: Evidence from a Cost-Effective, Blended-Learning Tutorial Model

Saga Education’s tutoring model using ALEKS improved math outcomes, achieving 1-2 years of additional learning while reducing costs for implementation.

  • PreK-12
  • Education Research
  • Overview
  • Math
  • Supplemental
  • ALEKS
  • Illinois
  • New York
  • 9th Grade
  • High School

Description

High-dosage tutoring has been shown to produce significant academic gains, particularly in math, by personalizing instruction and fostering mentorship. Saga Education, a nonprofit organization, has developed a cost-effective, blended-learning tutoring model to scale this approach while maintaining its effectiveness. This model alternates daily between in-person tutoring sessions and engagement with the ALEKS educational technology platform, which uses diagnostics and adaptive questioning tailored to individual student needs. The University of Chicago Education Lab partnered with Saga for this study. 

The program was piloted in partnership with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years, involving over 3,900 ninth-grade students across seven high schools. Preliminary results from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) indicate that the blended-learning model improves math test scores, math GPAs, and reduces math course failures compared with the control group, who received status quo school supports. Specifically, students in the program experienced a 0.24 standard deviation increase in math test scores, a 0.21-point improvement in math GPAs, and a 20% reduction in math course failures compared to their peers in the control group. These gains are equivalent to one to two years of additional math learning, comparable to the outcomes of Saga’s traditional tutoring model. The blended-learning approach also reduces program costs, making it more feasible for large-scale implementation. While these results are promising, ongoing analysis is required to confirm the long-term effectiveness of the model. The findings suggest that the blended-learning approach could preserve the benefits of individualized tutoring while addressing scalability challenges, offering a viable solution for improving math outcomes in high schools.

Research Citation:

Bhatt, Monica and Guryan, Jonathan and Khan, Salman and LaForest-Tucker, Michael and Mishra, Bhavya, Can Technology Facilitate Scale? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation of High Dosage Tutoring (May 2024). NBER Working Paper No. w32510.